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ADDRESS 


NEW-YORK STATE AGRICULTBRAL SOCIETY, 


AT THE CAPITOL, 


IN THE CITY OF ALBANY, 


On the Evening of the 18th January, 1849. 


BY LEWIS F. ALLEN, 


Late President of the Society. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE ASSEMBLY. 



ALBANY: 

WEED, PARSONS & CO., PUBLIC PRINTERS. 

3849. 



Ats. 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



NEW-YORK STITE AGRICIILTURAL SOCIETY, 



AT THE CAPITOL, 



IN THE CITY OF ALBANY, 



On the EveniI^; of the 18th January, 1849. 




1/ 



BY LEWIS F. ALLEN, 

Late President of the Society. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE ASSEMBLY. 



V) ALBANY: 

WEED, PARSONS & CO., PUBLIC PRINTERS 

1849. 




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^ 



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STATE OF NEW-YORK, i 
In Assembly, January 19, 1849. S 

Resolved, That the late President of the State Agricultural Society be requested 
to furnish to this House for publication, a copy of his able agricultural address, de- 
livered in the Assembly chamber before the Society, on the evening of the 18th in- 
stant. 



NEW-YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY,) 

Agricultural Rooms, >- 

Albany, January, 19th, 1849. ) 

Hon. a. K. Hadley, Speaker of the Assembly : 

DEAR SIR : — Lewis F. Allen, Esq., late President,^having presented to the Ex- 
ecutive Committee a resolution of your honorable body for " a copy of his able 
address, delivered on the evening of the 18th instant, before the Society for publi- 
cation." I am instructed by the Executive Committee to return to the Hon. the 
Assembly their most sincere thanks for this testimonial of approbation to the cause 
of Agriculture, and to the Society whose interests they are endeavoring to promote, 
as well as to the late respected President of our Society ; and that they most cheer- 
fully comply with the request presented. I send herewith a copy of the address, 
which had been delivered over to our Society by the President, Mr. Allen, previous 
to his reception of the resolution of your honorable body. 

I have the honor to be, 

Most respectfully. 

Your obt. servt., 

B. P. JOHNSON, 
Cor. Secretary N. Y. S. Ag. Society. 



In Assembly, January 22d, 1849. 

Kznolvcd, That twenty times the usual number of copies of the said address be 
f-r.;i!.!:-.l io: ti.a uso of the Legislature, and five hundred copies for the Agricultural 
h"n:i2t". By order. 

PHILANDER B. PRINDLE, 

Clerk of the Assembly^ 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the New- York State Agricultural Society. — 
The year has closed upon you with a season of prosperity to your 
general interests ; of abundance in the productions of your husban- 
dry ; and, I trust, of usual health to your families. Grateful to the 
Giver of all good for the manifold blessings showered upon us, it 
becomes us to improve the signal advantages we enjoy, and com- 
mence the new year of our action with invigorated efforts in the 
great labor with which we are charged. 

The magnitude of the operations of this Society, constituted of 
those representing the most numerous body of our population • re- 
lying solely upon the popular approbation for its support and its suc- 
cess ; built up during a series of years, by the strong efforts and 
ready hands of its managers and contributors ; fostered by the boun- 
ty of the public ; and cheered by the approbation and the recogni- 
tion of the Legislature, its position has become one of marked re- 
sponsibility, extensive usefulness, and of State, nay, of national im- 
portance. 

In the annual address which custom has sanctioned, and seemed to 
make imperative on your presiding officer, it can hardly be expected 
that, aside from a general view of the progress and affairs of your 
Society, both of which are more correctly detailed in the reports with 
which you have been favored than could be here given, a learned or 



professional discourse should be the burthen of his valedictory. 
Such certainly cannot be that of mine ; and I shall intrude no fur- 
ther on the important proceedings before you, than to give such pass- 
ing notice as the subject may demand, to the practical objects connec- 
ted with your institution. 

A period of seven years, since the present organization of our So- 
ciety, has passed, and it may be not without interest, and instruction 
to review the history of the efforts which have been made to attain 
our present position, and to advert slightly to the progress we have 
accomplished, as the result of well directed and systematic action to 
promote organization and improvement in the most neglected, yet 
most important of all the arts of civilized life. 

Passing unnoticed the occasional efforts of eminent individuals 
in the last century to excite public attention to agricultural improve- 
ment, the late transactions of the " Board of Agriculture " of this 
State are the most prominent, previous to the action of the present 
Society. In the month of April, 1819, the Legislature passed a law 
distributing $10,000 per annum to the several counties for the term 
of two years, for the improvement of agriculture, and confided the 
trust to a Board of Managers ; and in March, 1820, the Legislature 
extended the act to a further term of four years. The results of 
this beneficent measure were immediately felt throughout the entire 
State, most of the counties forming agricultural societies, and many 
individuals making spirited exertions in the improvement of their 
farms, crops, domestic animals, and household manufactures. Under 
the awakened influence of this law, an agricultural paper was com- 
menced in the city of Albany, patronized and recommended by the 
Board of Agriculture, and a considerable circulation in this and the 
neighboring States obtained. A biennial volume of " Memoirs of the 
Board of Agriculture," amounting to three in number, was published 



by the managers, containing much useful matter ; but from the ab- 
sence of that practical management only to be obtained through an 
experience in the daily routine of agricultural affairs, and a failure to 
enlist the affections of the farmers generally in the operations and 
proceedings of the local societies, the necessary interest flagged in 
their support, and after a few exhibitions, most of them expired a 
natural death, while but few survived their legal probation. The 
State patronage expired by its own limitation ; the volumes of " Me- 
moirs" lay uncalled for in the offices of the different county clerks, 
and the Albany " Plough Boy " engulphed in politics, died out by 
its own inanition. 

Thus passed the agricultural action of 1819 through to 1825, 
And although many wise, benevolent, and active men were engaged 
in promoting the immediate welfare of the agricultural community 
by efforts to excite their own self-improvement, the farming interest 
was not sufficiently alive to profit as it ought by either the State 
bounty, or those individual efforts. The law had become odious and 
unpopular ; mainly because the recipients of that bounty knew not 
how to use it ; and agriculture sunk again to the dull monotony of 
its former labors, and was left to individual improvement as occasion 
accident, or private enterprise should determine. Still, this measure 
effected great good. Numerous instances of decided progress became 
manifest under the stimulus of competition at the different county 
cattle shows ; and men of wealth, attached to agricultural interests 
and of other professions became active promoters of improvement in 
various departments of husbandry. It was under the stimulating in- 
fluences of that law that your late distinguished fellow citizens Ru- 
Fus King imported the Devon, and Stephen Van Rensselaer, the 
Short Horn cattle from England into this State. Other importations 
of domestic animals were made by different parties, the stock of 



8 



which still exist to benefit your husbandry. From that time howev- 
er, soundly slept every thing like State patronage to agriculture, 
agitated by only an occasional throe at public improvement by the 
late lamented Jesse Buel, and a few kindred spirits, whose wakeful 
minds were ever alive to the importance of agricultural progress ; 
and since the demise of the " Plough Boy," not a single publication 
devoted to its interest had issued from a public press, until in 1828, 
when the " Kew-York Farmer," a monthly periodical, was published 
in the city of New-York. The circulation of this paper, however, 
was limited, and its influence consequently feeble in arousing the re- 
quired interest to resuscitate the effort necessary to awaken the exist- 
ing torpor of the agricultural community. In 1831 commenced the 
publication of the " Genesee Farmer," in Rochester, a weekly peri- 
odical, conducted with ability and spirit, and now, through its suc- 
cessor, by the same title, continued, in a growing career of useful- 
ness. 

But the chief actors in the work which we have detailed, were 
passing away, and the younger generation taking their places, were 
gradually catching the spirit of emulation, occasionally thrown off by 
the survivors, until in February, 1832, a few gentlemen from differ- 
ent sections of the State, assembled in Albany, and formed the New- 
York State Agricultural Society, since recognized by the State, and 
now the body of which you, gentlemen, compose the members. This 
was seventeen years ago ; and, although in the recollection of most 
of you, as but yesterday, it is amusing, as well as interesting, to mark 
the position of the few then assembled — a forlorn hope — in contrast 
with the attitude you now present in the agricultural interests of this 
State, and of the American Union. A constitution was formed, a 
president and four vice presidents elected, and a report of its proceed- 
ings published in the Albany newspapers. Among the gentlemen 



then composing that little, yet important body, surviving others who 
have passed to their final rest, I count now before me a few still ac- 
tive and prominent members from that day to this, honored mean- 
time with its highest confidence, and conferring valuable benefits on 
their fellow men. Yet torpid, comparatively, as was the action of 
this body, and obliged to give utterance to its proceedings, save thro' 
the political papers, which took no interest in its labors, through the 
then feebly supported agricultural papers at New-York and Roches- 
ter, the creation of the State Society rapidly awakened an interest in 
different sections of the State ; and in less than two years from its 
formation, five or six county societies were organized. In 1833, ap- 
plication was made by the Society to the Legislature, for a law mak- 
ing a public appropriation of money for the promotion of Agriculture, 
and a report was made thereon in the Assembly by Mr. Avery Skin- 
ner, of the county of Oswego. But our Legislature were too deeply 
engaged in the exciting process of creating corporations to listen to 
the modest petitions, or devote their time to the welfare of the far- 
mer, and the application fell stillborn before them. 

Cheered on, however, by the brightening indications abroad, the 
Society resolved to hold a State cattle show at Albany, in October of 
that year, and a very creditable display of superior stock, farm pro- 
ducts and implements was made ; but controlling no funds where- 
with to award premiums, it was not successfully repeated during its 
then existing organization. 

In 1834, the Society resolved on the publication of a paper in Al- 
bany, devoted to the Agricultural interest, and the " Cultivator" was 
established, with Jesse Buel as its conductor. This movement gave 
at once an impulse to the cause, and awakened public attention to the 
long dormant subject of agricultural improvement. 

Late in 1835, a call numerously signed by gentlemen from differ- 
ent parts of the State, connected with the Society, was made through 



10 



the newspapers for an Agricultural Convention, to be held in Albany 
on the second Monday in February, 1836. Emanating from the 
State Society, and its prominent members in attendance, a formidable 
array of numbers appeared on the occasion of its meeting ; and to 
such extent, that in place of the contracted apartments which had 
hitherto accommodated with entire convenience the Society, while in 
session, the use of the Assembly chamber was requested for their ao- 
accommodation, and with the usual courtesy of the house, granted for 
the occasion. Instead, too, of the half concealed sneer on the part of 
honorable and aspiring members of the Legislature, at first ; not 
only they, comprising by a large majority, other trades and profes- 
sions than that of agriculture, attended ; but that indispensable and 
time-honored fraternity termed " the lobby," then, as now, an impor- 
tant adjunct to the law making power, with a most disinterested zeal 
for agricultural improvement, readily joined, as members of the Con- 
vention, and became, for the time, most spirited and patriotic farmers; 
and so far as their speeches and votes in convention were concerned, 
demonstrated beyond a cavil, the necessity of the fostering aid of the 
State to the neglected and dormant condition of its agriculture. 

But the spirit of curiosity, which attracted many who had enrolled 
their names as members of that Convention, and who could not ima- 
gine what legitimate object there could be in an assemblage of this 
sort, rapidly changed to a spirit of inquiry ; and during a short ses- 
sion of two days, sufficient matter was developed for a year's reflec- 
tion on a subject which had now become, to many of them, one of 
the highest consideration ; and it is but an act of simple justice, as 
well as of true gratification to remark, that many of the present most 
substantial supporters of the Society, and promoters of its objects, 
then skeptical to its merits, imbibed their zeal from that Convention, 
and those which succeeded it. A like convention w^as held during 
several successive winters at Albany, and the subject of public aid 



11 



to agriculture each time presented to the Legislature, who continued 
still regardless of their memorials. 

In 1838, then a member of the Assembly, and Chairman of the 
Committee on Agriculture — a committee so far as practical legislation 
was concerned y of no other consequence than to flatter the farmer 
with the empty compliment that his profession was recognized in 
State affairs — myself introduced a bill, based upon that of 1819, for the 
encouragement of agriculture. That measure was well received by 
the House ; was several times discussed, and I have little doubt, had 
time permitted, would have received a vote sufficiently large to pass ; 
but owing to the determined opposition of the Chairman of the Ag- 
ricultural Committee in the Senate, who had imbibed his prejudices 
from the workings of the law of 1819, and then declared that he 
would never report the bill to that body, if it even passed the As- 
sembly, and he too a large and wealthy farmer, the bill was not 
pressed beyond a few occasional discussions. Sufficient, however, 
was ascertained of the legislative approbation, to encourage future ap- 
plications to a successful issue. 

The next year, and the next, with accumulated force, and far more 
formidable pressure, from the increasing multitude of applications j 
and, urged by the continued annual Conventions upon the Legisla- 
ture, with many zealous and right hearted members to conduct the 
measure in both its bodies, our cause indicated a progress that must 
soon become triumphant ; and in 1841, the " act for the encomrage- 
ment of Agriculture," with an appropriation of $8,000 per annum, 
for five years became a law. In February of the same year, the 
State Society was re-organized, and its Constitution revised, prepara- 
tory to the opening of its career imder the provisions of the new act 
of the Legislature. By direction of its managers, a cattle show and 
fair was appointed to be held at Syracuse in September of that year, 



12 

which was energetically carried out ; aad although but an experiment, 
the result of that exhibition abundantly demonstrated the capacity and 
disposition of the farmers of New-York to exercise the important 
trust which had been committed to their hands. 

Encouraged by that beneficent law, Agricultural Societies were 
constituted in a large majority of the counties of the State during that 
year, which have since been maintained with increasing zeal and be- 
nefit. The law making appropriations for this object has been re- 
newed to the present time ; and he must be a hardy legislator who 
can now raise a voice of potency against its continuance, so deeply 
grounded are its healthful influences in the affections of our people. 
An act pregnant with greater good to the prosperity of the State, 
next to establishing the foundations of social order, and domestic se- 
curity, never has emanated from your Legislature ; and long, long, 
and with increasing bounty, may it continue ! 

In viewing the progress of this great measure through its first fee- 
ble efforts at existence, until its final consummation by law, and its 
rapid advancement since, an acknowledgment of deep gratitude is due 
to the liberality which has pervaded the ranks of those professions and 
occupations in our community not agricultural. The most formidable 
obstacles which the promoters of this institution have met in all their 
efforts, were either the determined inaction, or direct opposition of 
the mass of the farmers themselves. I speak this more in sorrow than 
in anger, that they who were to be most benefitted by its results, 
should be the slowest in yielding it their support ; while those of the 
learned professions, the mechanics, artizans, and merchants generally, 
both in and out of the Legislature, and throughout the State, gave to 
our efforts a general and hearty concurrence. The comparatively 
few practical farmers whose zeal and co-operation would take no de- 
nial until success had crowned their efforts, represented, with but 



13 

few exceptions, an inactive and thankless constituency at home. It 
is, however, most consolatory to remark, that the practical operations 
of this and the county societies have awakened a spirit of emulation 
and enquiry among the mass of our farmers which, although slow in 
its growth, must ultimately be crowned with the most gratifying re- 
sults. 

Nor is the inactivity complained of, perhaps, unnatural on the part 
of the agricultural class. Engaged in a retired and domestic occupa- 
tion J unusued to habits of professional association, of which they 
have not been taught the necessity, nor felt the stimulating influence, 
they have neglected to adopt that combined action which distinguish 
the other professions, and is the main spring to their success in the 
improvement which they so rapidly accomplish. But we are ascer- 
taining that this system of association, in order to advance to any 
high degree of improvement also, we must effectually practice ; for 
it is only to the habits of inquiry, and examination of whatever sub- 
ject he may have in hand, that gives success to the master of any occu- 
patl(Mi whatever. Why is it the fact — and fact it is — that many of the 
best and most successful farmers in our country are those, who, bred 
to other pursuits, and toiled in them to middle age — and many far be- 
yond it — till from inclination, or necessity, they have embraced agri- 
culture as an occupation, with a determination to succeed 1 It is be- 
cause investigation has been the habit of their lives. They do no- 
thing Muthout a good and satisfactory reason for doing it. They bend 
every faculty of the mind to acquire success in this, as they did in 
their previous pursuits ; and the application of the same intelligenee 
upon the farm that had there been exerted, produced the same results, 
although their early education and subsequent labors had kept them 
in profound ignorance of the simplest rules of practical agriculture. 
The most gratifying success has been thus accomplished, while he, 
who has from childhood tilled his paternal acres in obstinate and per- 



14 



severing ignorance of the true principles of his art, although scorning 
in the pride of his own fancied superiority, the more timid efforts of 
his thoughtful neighbor, delves on through life, a wre tched and un- 
successful farmer, and in time leaves the world no better, so far as 
his own labors were concerned, than he found it ; and is finally bu- 
ried beneath a soil over which he plodded for three score years, and 
never knew a single part of its composition ! 

This, though perhaps an extreme, and certainly not a flattering 
picture, is still a type of agricultural life, in its way, existing in every 
one of our United States. In what profession throughout the length 
and breadth of our land is there so little progress — nay, such deter- 
mined opposition to progress, as in the ranks of agriculture 1 I would 
not assert that numerous eminent examples of improvement have not 
existed among those of purely agricultural occupation. But they are 
rare as compared with men of other pursuits when applied with all 
their research and intelligence to agriculture alone. 

And it may well be inquired, why is this so ? Agriculture occu- 
pies four-fifths of the laboring population of the land. From the 
agricultural ranks have sprung many of the most illustrious names 
whose services have adorned and honored their country. From its 
ranks, too, have perhaps a majority of the most successful among 
those engaged in the various other pursuits and occupations of life 
arisen. In short, there can be no class of our population which af- 
fords so sure a basis on which to rely for an infusion into all other 
pursuits to the durable prosperity of a State as the agricultural. Such 
is the gratifying truth ; and it is to the health-giving influences of 
the soil itself ; the free wild air of heaven that he breathes ; cheer- 
ful exercise and occupation ; contentment ; and the full, unrestrained 
enjoyment of man's first estate bestowed by God himself, that thus 
constitutes in him who tills the soil, the full development of his fa- 
culties in all the admirable proportions of body and of mind that his 



16 

Creator intended. Notwithstanding all this, the question still recurs, 
and may be variously answered. The very ease and contentment 
of condition in the farmer, is one probable cause of his inactivity in 
improvement. The quietude of his avocations prevents that constant 
attrition of mind inseparable from the bustling activity of most other 
pursuits ; and the certainty with which the soil yields its annual 
tribute to his labor, dispels that spirit of investigation common to 
classes the result of whose labors is contingent or uncertain. Nor 
yet is the farmer an ignorant, or a slothful man. In the great re- 
sponsibilities of life — in domestic duty — in love of country — in the 
orderly support of the institutions of the land — in stern watchfulness 
over the acts of those he has placed in authority, and in that exalted 
patriotism which is ever ready for the heaviest sacrifice to the benefit 
of his race, he, as a class stands without a rival. And yet, possessed 
of all these qualities, and enjoying all these advantages, the absence 
of the spirit of association, leaves him in effect the least benefitted at 
the hands of those he elects to govern him, of all others. 

Who invents, improves, and perfects the plow, and all the nameless 
implements which alleviate his toil and accelerate his labor ? Who 
analyzes his soils, instructs him in their various qualities, and teaches 
him how to mix and manure them for the most profitable cultivation? 
The mechanic — the chemist. Who, ascertaining that his seeds are 
imperfect and unprofitable, searches foreign lands for new or better 
ones, and introduces them to his notice 1 The commercial adventu- 
rer, or the travelled man of enquiry and observation. Who, on 
comparing the inferior domestic animals which he propagates, and in 
whose growth and fattening he loses half his toil and the food they 
consume, sends abroad, regardless of expense, and introduces the 
best breeds of horses, cattle, sheep and swine for his benefit ? In 
nine cases out of ten these labors and benefactions — and their name 



16 

is legion — are performed by those whose occupations have been chiefly 
in other channels, and whose agricultural tastes have led them into 
the spirit of improving it. And in how many examples have we 
witnessed the apathy, if not determined opposition with which the 
farmer proper — or at least he who claimed to be one — ^lias set his face 
like flint against their adoption, even after their superiority had been 
demonstrated beyond a question ! 

So, too, with the farmer's education. They have been content that 
the resources and the bounty of the State should be lavished upon the 
higher seats of learning, where the more aspiring of our youth should re- 
ceive their benefits, not caring even to inquire whether such youth should 
again return among them to reflect back the knowledge thus acquired. 
They have failed to demand from the common treasure of the State 
those necessary institutions which shall promote their own particular 
calling, and which every other pursuit and profession in the land has 
been most active to accomphsh. In all this the latter have progressed 
vnth railway speed ; while the farming interest has stood still with 
folded arms, and done comparatively nothing ; and what good has 
been forced upon it by others, even regarded with suspicion. It is 
not because we as farmers, compared with others, are either ignorant 
or stupid. We only neglect to assert our rights, and appropriate the 
share to which we are entitled in the common patronage of the State 
to the benefit of our own professions. It is for us to ask — to will — to 
do it. We hold the power of the State by our numbers. We can 
control the halls of legislation. We can so direct the laws that we 
may share equal advantages in our institutions with others. We de- 
sire nothing exclusively to our own advantage, but we do deserve an 
equal participation in those institutions established for the common 
benefit of all. 



17 



If a practical inference may be drawn from the thoughts thus de- 
sultorily thrown together, it would be that, from a history of the past, 
and the condition of our agriculture as it now exists, we demand that 
our profession shall be placed within the reach of equal advantages 
for improvement that are now enjoyed by other professions. Under 
a condition of things constituted like those which we have discussed, 
you, gentlemen of the Society, have labored during the last seven- 
teen years, through anxiety and toil, directed by honest purpose and 
intelligent action, until you have arrived at a successful issue. It 
has been a labor if not of discovering the precious metal in the 
earth at least that of removing the inert mass from the surface, to 
the quarrying of the mine, and the upraising of the valuable ore to 
the admiration of the community, to be wrought by skillful artizans 
into handiwork of infinite utility and ornament. Aside from meta- 
phor ; a mass of long slumbering prejudice and inertia has been re- 
moved ; the spirit of improvement has been awakened ; our agricul- 
tural resources have been partially developed; our exertions have 
won an acknowledgement of the importance and dignity of our call- 
ing, which none can gainsay ; and it is thus that your Society, through 
its labors and results, now stands an object of respect and admira- 
tion to our countrymen. A great good has therefore been effected, 
and in contemplating the position which your Society now occupies, 
I do it in no exulting spirit of laudation, or of triumph,butas admon- 
ishing you, that having accomplished so much, you have the highest 
incentive to still further, if not weightier labors and achievements. 
Not content with creating an institution which holds an established 
rank among kindred institutions abroad, and maintaining honorable 
and kindly intercourse with them ; nor that you annually draw out 
the farmers, mechanics and citizens of this and of neighboring States 



18 



in laudable competition for superiority in their productions ,and 
ingenuity, and giving the results of your investigations to the vs^orld — 
higher objects await your efforts, and invite your attainment. You 
will bear with me, I trust, while I offer such suggestions on this in- 
teresting topic as shall appear germain to the occasion. 

Agricultural education should attract largely your attention ; and 
it is a subject which will bear a little examination. The pittance of 
$8,000 a year is now doled out of your public treasury, a bare re- 
cognition only of the importance and value of agricultural associations, 
of which the stipend of $700 is paid to your Society. To call this 
State bounty, which we in courtesy do, is little better than mockery. 
Forty thousand dollars a year would now be less, compared with the 
wealth and resources of the State, than $10,000 in ]819. Why, 
gentlemen, the annual appropriations to agricultural advancement 
from the State Treasury, is less than that given to three of your col- 
leges, where less than two hundred students yearly graduate. Appro- 
priations amounting to more than $500,000 of public money have 
been made by law for the endowment of colleges; and your Litera- 
ture Fund is still annually drawn upon to the amount of $15,000 in 
contributing to their support, while their halls remain a sealed book 
to him who looks only to agriculture as the profession of his life ; 
and of the thousands who there receive the bounty of the State in 
aid of their education, not a tithe of them in the course of their lives 
add a dollar to the physical or productive wealth of the country. 
The common school, or the village academy is the only institution 
where the young farmer gains admittance ; and even there, as at 
present constituted, he hardly acquires an idea of the rudest elements 
of his future profession, or of those studies which properly belong 
to it. 

These remarks are not made in a querulous or fault-finding temper. 
It is right that we have colleges, and academies for the few who as- 



19 



pire to the higher walks of professional or scientific life, as well as 
common schools for the million. No State can be well, or wisely 
constituted without them, and I would not abate one jot or tittle from 
the wholesome support which a broad and liberal system of education 
demands. But we should claim, and insist, that departments devoted 
to agricultural teaching, or to the development of agricultural sci- 
ence, should be established, either as branches of our seats of learn- 
ing, or as independent institutions. Why should not the farmer be 
educated to the top of his faculties, as well as those who select what 
are termed the learned professions as their pursuit 1 If our sons 
cannot be taught the education they seek in the colleges — and there 
are well grounded doubts of this fact from the moral malaria too 
often existing within and around them — institutions for their sole edu- 
cation should be aided, or erected, and endowed by the State. This 
subject has been annually debated in your meetings for years past ; 
but influenced by a strange timidity, no decided action beyond a for- 
mal and altogether harmless expression of opinion has been effected. 
I beseech you, gentlemen, to look at this matter. The real and per- 
sonal property of this State is more than one thousand millions of 
dollars. Nominally, in the assessors returns, it is rated at less than 
650 millions- In these returns, it is notorious that real estate is not 
assessed at over two-thirds its real value, and it is safe to say, that 
owing to the imperfect and partial system of taxation, not one-half 
the personal property of the State, comparatively little of which is 
held by the farmer, is taxed at all ; and in its practical operation, ag- 
ricultural capital pays two to one over that devoted to other purpo- 
ses. Yet with all this burthen on its back, the farming interest either 
stands back from your halls of legislation abashed, although nominal- 
ly represented there by its members; or if plucking a momentary 
courage by the congregation of its numbers on an occasion li^e the 
present, it literally shrinks away, either ashamed to ask its rights, or 



20 



if asking, couched in such a subdued tone of humility, that the Le- 
gislature scarce believe you in earnest. This, gentlemen, is your at- 
titude before the temporary power which you create to govern you! 
Contrast it with the conduct of those who seek a different kind of 
favor at its hands. Watch the thousands of applicants for corporate, 
and exclusive privileges, and State patronage, who have in times past 
beseiged your halls of legislation. With what confidence they ap- 
proach and lay seigetothe law-making power ; and how like "sturdy 
beggars " they persevere, till, wright or wrong, their importunities are 
granted. And in parenthasis I might continue to remark, that the his- 
tory of our corporate legislation is monstrous. Some years by gone, 
and banking charters were the only subject of moment before these 
bodies ; and that legislator who did not go home with more or less 
of the promised shares of a successful application in his pocket, was 
considered as but a dull financier, or strongly suspected of having 
what, in private life, is called — a conscience! In later time, it has been 
asserted that railroad corporations have controlled your Legisla- 
tures — ridden into their seats by aid of free tickets ; and cotemporary 
with them, had we farmers caught the spirit of the day, and adopted 
characteristic weapons of success, each one of us would have ap- 
peared with a sheep on his back, or a truss of poultr}" at his elbow, 
to lunch them into acquiescence ! 

But, badinage apart; this isasubjectof serious, of momentous conse- 
quence, not only to us, but to the State at large. We are a growing people ; 
not in population alone, but in wealth, and in resources. Our whole coun- 
try is comparatively new, and wealth is accumulated with us as with no 
other people of which history gives an example. I speak of substan- 
tial, enduring wealth ; that which adds to the enjoyment, the happi- 
ness, and the truly elevated condition of man. Of all this wealth and 
prosperity, agriculture is the basis — the indispensable support. Yet, 



21 



in defiance of this reiterated truth, as an occupation, agriculture of 
itself, is degraded. Let politicians, or demagogues chant their paens 
to the tillers of the soil as they may, and tell them of the honor, and 
the dignity of their estate ; yet, practically, simple farming is consi- 
dered by those who assume to give tone and opinion in social and po- 
litical life, an inferior occupation, fit only for dull, unthinking, and 
uneducated men. "Were it not so, why are the Agricultural ranks so 
continually deserted by our active and aspiring youth for the more 
worldly popular pursuits, under the belief that they are more advan- 
tageous 1 Look at our great, bustling cities, and towns. See on all 
sides our professions crowded to excess ; with, among the masses 
which throng them, but a comparatively few who are successful either 
in fame or fortune. View our merchants, and shopkeepers, overrun 
and undermined in competition with one another ; and clerks, and 
shopboys plentier and cheaper on their hands than the wares they 
hold on sale ; and all the motley congregations which are drawn 
about them by the spirit of adventure and of novelty ; while the petty 
political offices of the day are held up like lottery tickets, to an un- 
scrupulous and indiscriminate scramblej — all for the possession of a 
fancied prize in the great raffling match of adventure ; while the shop 
of the mechanic, or the artizan, which holds out a safe and durable re- 
ward to honorable labor, is hard pressed to find apprentices ; and the 
broad, inviting acres of the farmer, are lying sterile or unproductive, 
for lack of cultivation. 

In ministering to this vitiated appetite of discontent, the farmer 
himself is oft times blameable. In a too humble estimat.-^, of his own 
condition and character, and in the absence of those advantages for 
his children, of which he himself has felt the want; with a fond desire 
for their welfare, he has encouraged their early restless propensities ; 
and hoping that the wide world of chance, or speculation, or luck, 
would cast them m a happier lot than his own, has pinched the al- 



22 



ready limited share of himself, and those who yet prefer the quiet 
homestead, to fit out for some undecided profession, or dubious branch 
of traffic, him who, under this misplaced partiality, now goes abroad, 
in time to return, a prodigal son, or, as is often the case, to beggar 
the family by his extravagance. 

On the other side, it may be said, that the enterprising lad, thus 
leaving his home with laborious habits and well fixed principles, soon 
engages in some active pursuit, and succeeds far beyond a brother of 
perhaps equal talent, who has remained at home, and only inherited 
the toil and poverty of the parent, in whose track he had diligently 
pursued. Very true ; but mark the difference in advantage. The 
adventurous youth had fallen on a beaten track, with intelligent lights 
to aid his course, which, only to follow with engergy and prudence, 
was to succeed. The other had groped along in a cloud of tradition- 
ary fog, and floundered on in the uncertainty of guess-work, with no 
accurate light to guide him; like the mariner who departs on his voy- 
age, with ship and sails to be sure, but miserably appointed, without 
rudder, chart or compassj while the first, with ship well found, and a 
master mind at helm, is wafted on to a successful destination. 

Do you ask for the reflux of tide from the mass of other to Agricul- 
tural pursuits 1 You look for it in vain. How^ naany, bred in our 
cities, towns, and villages, seek the farm for employment — leave the 
too often casual occupations of the crowd, and take to the plough, or 
to the forest 1 None whatever. Or if, perchance, there be an isola- 
ted case of the sort, it is, when following the parent, who, tired of 
the world's vanities, or its fitful changes, wisely retires to the farm 
for that solid good which a bustling world had denied him. 

There is another great and responsible class among us who have an 
abiding interest in the exaltation of our Agriculture. I speak of the 
wealthy classes distributed throughout our cities, towns, and villages. 
Owing to the free and happy institutions we enjoy, well directed in- 



23 



dustry, coupled with perseverance and economy in most branches of 
business, is tolerably sure to succeed. But with the success of the 
parent, and his consequent devotion to the labors of his office, or his 
counting room, that necessary vigilance and watchfulness over the 
proper education and employment of his child, is too often neglected. 
Honestly feeling the strength of his own self-reliance, he trusts that 
the son may follow in his own laborious and successful course. But 
a few years only pass, and that son has arrived at manhood, vitiated, 
perhaps, by adverse associations, or if still within the path of safety, 
unfitted by education, or the false estimate of his position in life, to 
succeed in the beaten track of parental example. In a great majo- 
rity of cases, capital, toilfully gathered, and safely invested, is squan- 
dered, or lost in business adventure by the misapplication of the son, 
while the hopeful parent had never considered, that when he had fur- 
nished the means, he could not regulate the brains to control it ; and 
after, perhaps, repeated trials, he withdraws him from business alto- 
gether, an unsuccessful and disappointed man ; and the parent him- 
self, if he escape the ruin of the son, is at a loss to know how he shall 
provide for his decent employment, or witness the wasting of his own 
gains during life time in an unprofitable support — for in this country, 
thank God, a man must do something to make him respectable. And 
yet the well meaning and laborious parent is scarely to blame. He 
has looked abroad among the pursuits of the world, and finds none 
more generally successful than the one he himself has occupied. But 
risen, perchance, from comparative poverty himself, he cannot real- 
ize that the strong incentive for exertion, which existed in his own 
case, is absent in the son, and therefore, that they each look out upon 
the world from widely different premises. 

Nor, during all this probation of anxiety and solicitude, has it ever 
occurred to the father, that Agriculture held out the safest mode of 
investment for a portion of his gains ; and if not the most rapid in 



24 



accumulation of worldly goods, was, at least, the surest pursuit for 
his children, in the absence of that successful tact which he himself 
possessed for professional, mercantile, or mechanical life. But he 
has on the other hand, imbibed the popular and mistaken notions of 
the day on that subject. He might, like others who fancied they 
had some Agricultural taste, have had his own country house and 
farm got up at great expense; and been pestered with worthless ser- 
vants, and dishonest managers, who only pillaged and worried him ; 
and after a brief and unsatisfactory trial, abandoned it in disgust, like 
hundreds of his friends and neighbors; never dreaming that his farm- 
ing got on quite as well as his law, or his trade would have done, 
with the same amount of his own personal attention ! That, and the 
drudgery of the ordinary farmer, who tilled his own scanty acres in 
his immediate neighborhood, and whose association, as ignorant and 
degrading, he had scorned, were the only experience he had known, 
on which to make up his opinions ; and as a matter of course, he only 
knew agriculture to condemn it. 

But had Agriculture her proper institutions, where his children 
could have been taught its necessary education and practice, and ex- 
erted its proper influence among the pursuits of the day, how readily 
would he have embraced the advantages it offered to his family, and 
eagerly bestowed the best talents of his sons to its rewards! Thus 
prepared to enjoy it, how many thousands of men, rich in the ac- 
quirement of proper knowledge, and fortified in the possession of 
wholesome estates, would be shining examples of thrift and improve- 
ment in our midst! Ample domains, with broad cultivated fields — 
spreading pastures, dotted with the lively spectacle of flocks and 

^gy(jg meadows, waving under the burthen of their luxuriant grasses; 

and graced with comfortable mansions and bending orchards; and 
peopled throughout the year with those who really felt the dignity of 
their calling, would spread along your noble rivers; and look abroad 



25 



from your lofty hills; and line in beautiful relief your canals and tho- 
roughfares — spectacles of home bred comfort, and independence, illus- 
trative of true American character. But instead of these, are seen 
the fantastic villas, and ephemeral erections, which perk up in ambi- 
tious pretension on the elevated knolls of your noble Hudson, the 
summer abodes of " fancy farming," only to be abandoned after a 
few brief occupations in a round of ennui killing pastimes, and voted 
— a bore. Such empty essay at Agricultural life usually ends in the 
squander of what would, if judiciously invested in a useful farm, have 
been a handsome estate, and is sold, perhaps, under the hammer, at a 
tithe of its cost to some man of better sense, who pulls down the 
bauble, or changes it into an appearance of propriety, and appropri- 
ates the soil to useful purposes 

It may be said that these pictures are of extreme cases. So they 
are. And also that they are subject to many proper exceptions. 
Very true. But they do exist, and that in far too great numbers, and 
scarce one of us but knows an instance of their just application. 
Still there is a great class left: the substantial middle class of our 
farmers, who require for their sons, destined to follow in their own 
steady course, that necessary kind of education at present unattaina- 
ble in our country, and which can only be properly given in agricul- 
tural schools. The young farmer painfully feels the want of advan- 
tages which these would confer, and the aid of which, he vainly seeks 
elsewhere; and the question, how are we to accomplish the object, 
remains to be answered. 

Although keenly alive to the necessity, 1, for one, am not prepared 
to submit to you a definite plan; yet am prepared for prompt, vigor- 
ous, and decisive action. In the first place, I believe a trial of some 
kind — an experiment, if you please — should be made. Our State has 
not been fearful to make experiments in the establishment of any work, 



26 



the practical utility of which has once been settled. A few thousands, 
nay, millions of dollars, have not deterred our legislators from either 
taxing the people, or appropriating its already accumulated treasures 
for works tending to the public welfare. Our literature and common 
school funds have been augmented in various ways, until common 
education throughout the State is almost free, and in some communi- 
ties absolutely so, by the aid of general taxation on property. Me- 
dical institutions, as well as colleges, have been largely endowed, and 
are still assisted by the State; and you have abundant example that the 
disposition has not been wanting in our government to execute, where 
the great constiutent body has demanded the work. The propriety of 
this measure has reached your high places, and I refer with great plea- 
sure to the recent message of Governor Fish, who, in view of the be- 
nign results accomplished by your society, has emphatically recom- 
mended " the endowment by the State of an Agricultural School and 
a school for instruction in the Mechanic Arts;" and this, if followed 
up with the zeal and earnestness which its importance demands, you 
may certainly effect. I cannot believe that a wise and intelligent 
Legislature will longer deny your prayer. It may be said, that we 
have in this country no exam.ples from which to copy an institution of 
this kind. No matter. They exist abroad, in the full tide of success, 
far beyond the probation of experiment; the Hofwyl School, in Swit- 
zerland, founded by Fellenburgh, for example, to say nothing of oth- 
ers, equally successful, in other countries of Europe. To them might 
Commissioners repair, at a moderate expense, for models of instruc- 
tion, so far as they are adapted to our wants and condition; and were 
it not so, it is but a poor commentary upon American ingenuity and 
enterprize, to halt at any thing supposed to be ultimately attainable, 
without the strongest effort to effect it; and we can no more doubt 
the final success of institutions of this kind, than we can doubt the 
conquering career of the steam engine, or the electric battery. 



27 



The laying deep and broad, the foundations of a State Agricultural 
School, subject to an equal ratio of scholars from the several counties 
of the State, would be in accordance with the already established plans 
of distributing the public benefits of education, and liable to no ob- 
jection. Thus, the necessary knowledge, so acquired, would be car- 
ried back among our population, to be spread broadcast, in the re- 
motest districts of the State, through branches of other institutions, 
which might be set apart for that purpose, or established independent- 
ly, through private liberality or enterprize. It cannot be expected, 
indeed it never was anticipated, that the State Agricultural Society 
should embark in a work of this kind; it has neither the necessary 
funds nor the corporate strength to effect it, and in pursuing the cor- 
rect path already indicated, it has abundant exercise for all its func- 
tions. Yet its advisory aid and co-operation would be invaluable, and 
greatly add to the utility and success of any agricultural institution. 

Aside from the establishment of an independent School for agricul- 
ture, the State might with great propriety provide a department in the 
Normal School, now becoming a settled branch of public education 
for instruction in the punciples of Agricultural Science, which, from 
them, might be taught in the common schools. Popular works on 
Geology, Agricultural Chemistry, Botany, Animal, and Vegetable 
Physiology, the plain principles of Mechanic Art — all which are in- 
dispensable to the proper education of the farmer, might be taught in 
a plain, and simple course of lessons, as easily as the ordinary rules 
of arithmetic, or mathematics; and a knowledge of these would be the 
source of satisfaction, if not of future profit, to every scholar. " Du- 
ring the past year," I quote the language of Governor Fish, " $81,624.05 
have been expended by the State for the increase of books in the 
school district libraries, to which have been added, one million three 
hundred thousand volumes." Works of the kind which have been 



2S 



mentioned, together with well approved Agricultural books, should 
form a portion of the annual additions to these libraries; and if such 
works cannot be found, the necessary authority should be created for 
their compilation. Thus you provide the means of self instruction 
in a great degree, to the humblest and most obscure inquirer, and that 
without cost. 

In these last suggestions, I am gratified to remark, that we have 
the testimony of such high authority as the late Governor Wright, in 
the address he had prepared, and which was read after his lamented 
death, before your Society, at Saratoga. It was a subject to which 
he had, unquestionably, given much of his strong and vigorous thought, 
and may be well received by us as worthy of profound considera- 
tion. 

Let us then commence the work, and proceed until we effect this 
momentous object. Let it become the duty of a committee of your 
body, to take the subject in charge, and wait upon the Legislature^ 
with all the resources they may command, to aid them in enacting a 
law, and to carry out its provisions. This once effected, your future 
success is certain. The time is auspicious. I believe the public 
mind is prepared to receive it, and that it will be hailed with heartfelt 
gratification by all classes of our community. 

Among the benefits arising from well directed Agricultural educa- 
tion, aside from spreading the requisite learning and intelligence ap- 
plicable to the chief pursuit of our people, deep and broad among 
them, the retention of that portion of active capital, acquired by the 
industry of our Agricultural population, among themselves, would be 
one important consequence. In place of the prevailing and mistaken 
notion that monied capital invested in agriculture is either unproduc- 
tive, or less so than in other pursuits, our farmers would be taught 
that, coupled with ihe knowledge to direct it, no branch of our national 



29 



industry is so steadily remunerating as that connected with the soil — 
a fact now practically disbelieved ; or why would such amounts of 
monied capital be continually drawn from the agricultural districts to 
your commercial cities, to be embarked in hazardous enterprises, or 
doubtful investments? The merchant, or the speculator may fail — and 
fail he does, very often — and in his downfall is often buried the toils of 
a long life of patient industry. But who ever knew a good farmer, 
of prudent habits to fail? Nay, who did not, with an exemption from 
extraordinary ills in life, ultimately grow rich, and discharge mean- 
time, all the duties of a good citizen? I concede to you the many 
prominent cases which exist, of wealth rapidly accumulated by bold 
and successful speculation; of fortunate, > perhaps accidental adven- 
ture; of hoards heaped up by a long course of perseverance in trade, 
directed by that intuitive sagacity of which but few among us all are 
endowed, and which so dazzlingly invite our imitation. Yet these 
are but a few glaring instances, standing out in bold relief among the 
many who have sunk in the same career, perhaps with a ruined peace; 
happy afterwards to retire, were it in their power, upon the limited 
possession which they had thrown away, to commence their wasting 
strife upon the broad sea of adventure. 

A second advantage would be, that it would invite, annually, a large 
class of educated men of capital from our cities, to invest a portion of 
their wealth in our farms, convinced by the knowledge acquired in a 
course of agricultural education, that Husbandry was a good business, 
and intending to pursue it as the occupation of their lives, it would 
cause a reflux of that capital and population which had been drawn 
away from agriculture. Nor would such associations among us de- 
tract from the industrious habits of our farmers by their example. 
They, by the possession of larger estates than we enjoy, might give 
more of their time to leisure than we are accustomed to spend; but 



30 



they must, if good farmers, attend to the daily routine of their affairs, 
as well as we. They would diffuse intelligence among us; introduce 
improved implements, seeds, and stock; and in time, surely exalt the 
character of our husbandry. They might not, indeed, work at the 
muck heap, nor guide the plow with their own hands; but they must 
be capable, from education, to direct the labor of both; for we must 
not forget that the merchant who, from his luxurious counting room 
plans his voyages, and directs the course of his ships; or the engi- 
neer who projects the rail-way, or the ocean steamer, once performed 
the duties of a shop boy, or hammered at the anvil. And thus with 
the farmer: he should be capable of directing the cultivation of the 
soil to its greatest possible extent of production ; and he will find 
that, in achieving such result, all the powers of his mind, and the 
knowledge with which it is stored, will be required. 

This thought will bear a little examination. The farmer is apt to 
think that the professional man, or the merchant, lives an easy and 
luxurious life. In many instances their families may do so ; but 
with the eminent and successful man of law, or science — the artizan, 
or merchant himself, such supposition is a great mistake. There are 
not, under heaven, a more laborious class of men than these. Labor 
of body, and of mind is theirs — and that incessant. See them early, 
late; in season, and out of season — their whole energies devoted to 
their several callings, without rest, or intermission — and far too fie- 
quently, to the premature wasting of life itself. It is no wonder that 
such industry, directed by good education, (and by this term I mean 
the entire training of the boy to manhood in its most extended sense,) 
and stimulated by a laudable ambition, should lead to success. Yet 
with all these appliances, the labors of such men are often disas- 
trous ; and if not so, after a life of anxiety, their toils too frequnntly 
end with but the means of a slender support. Compared with these. 



31 



the toils of the farmer are light. Physical labor he endures, it is 
true, and often times severe labor, but his mind is easy. He enjoys 
sound rest, and high health. He has much leisure ; in many cases 
more than is for his good. He has abundant time to discuss politics, 
law, religion — everything, in fact, but what relates to his own profes- 
sion, on which subject, I lament to say, his mind seems less exercised 
than on almost any other. Now, let the same early education be 
given to the young farmer of an equally acute intellect that is given 
to him who chooses'professional, mechanical, or mercantile pursuits — 
education each in his own line. Let them start fair. Apply the same 
thought, investigation, energy, and toil, each in his particular sphere, 
and beyond all question agriculture will, in the aggregate, have the 
advantage — and for this reason, if no other: there are few contingen- 
cies connected with agriculture. Its basis is the solid earth, stamped 
with the Divine promise, that while it remains, seed-time and harvest 
shall continue; while commerce, and trade; mechanics, and arts are 
liable to extraordinary and continual accident. Look at the devasta- 
tions by flood, and fire — of ship, and cargo, upon ocean, lake, 
and sea, and river ; conflagrations in your towns and cities ; and the 
thousand other casualties which almost daily occur — all which are a 
dead sink upon labor and capital not agricultural, and the risks of 
the husbandman are scarce one to ten, in the comparison. Rely upon 
it, Farmers, you are on the safe side. 

But, I hear some one remark, "Why, if agriculture, through the 
improved education proposed, holds out such alluring advantages, all 
our young men will rush into it, and competition will destroy it." 
Not the slightest danger. Our young men are already running into 
the other trades and professions, where competition is ruinous ; and 
all we ask, is the opportunity to get a share of them back again. 
Besides, there is no fear that the other avenues of industry will not 



zu 



be filled ; for, in the constitution of our natures, there will always be 
enough unquiet spirits born into the world which the farm cannot 
hold, to keep the bustling part of it in motion. 

Another, and a prominent advantage which we should receive from 
good agricultural education, would be, that of more stability of cha- 
racter in our farming population. It is proverbial among traveled 
foreigners in this country, and it would be a subject of wonder among 
our staid people at home — if an American could wonder at anything 
— that we are the most changing people in the world. We, as a 
population, have few, scarce any, local attachments. This, to an ex- 
tent, is a true, although a severe censure. It arises, no doubt — and 
naturally enough, too — from the wide extent of national domain of 
which we are the possessors, and from the natural sterility of much 
of the soil in our older communities, which cause an effort, and a 
laudable one, too, to better thdr condition in our rural population. 
But more, I imagine, from the low standard of agricultural improve- 
ment, and a mistaken estimate of the value of the soil, and its appli- 
cation to the products which properly belong to it. But, no matter 
what the cause. The fact is so, and it is a defect in our national cha- 
racter. How many among us but will, with a slightly tempting 
offer, sell his homestead without remorse — break up the cherished 
associations of his life — turn his back upon the graves of his kindred, 
and his children — his birth-spot — the old hearth-stone of his boyhood 
— his family altar, even the brave old trees, which have, life-long, 
waved their branches over his childish sports, and shadowed his inno- 
cent slumbers when weary of his play, all — all, pass out of his hands, 
like a plaything of yesterday, unwept and unregretted, for the fancied 
advantage of a fresh spot in a strange and a newer land. 

I must, however, in justice, make some exceptions to this general 
propensity in American character. There are some among the descend- 



33 



ants of the early New England Puritans, and the ancient Dutch settlers of 
this State, who have, with a pious regard to the memories of their 
ancestors, and a wise attachment to the spots of their birth, retained, 
and, through the influences of a correct education, and well settled 
principle, bid fair to retain, the paternal acres which they have inhe- 
rited— howes of plenty, contentment, and genuine hospitality ; where 
retired virtues, like those practised by their fathers, have long hallow- 
ed them with a local habitation and a name. Such, stand out as 
strong landmarks in the fitful changes of place, and name throughout 
our country, and redeem, to some extent, the caustic remark of the 
late John Randolph, of Roanoke, who once declared, on the floor of 
Congress, that he scarce knew an American but would sell his very 
dog for money! 

We are not slow in finding out when we are well off, although all 
are not satisfied under such condition ; but with these advantages 
around and among us, of which we feel the daily benefit, and of 
which, by removal, we should forever be deprived, their tendency 
would be to fix us more firmly to our homes, and lead us to examine 
the resources within our reach, which otherwise might never have 
been developed. Associatiwis of an elevated character are among the 
most powerful in thus keeping us content ; and institutions in which the 
farmer has a direct interest, would, more than almost any other, allay 
this tendency to change. Our resources, and our productive power, 
are thus retained, far beyond what can be acquired by the continued 
restlessness common to us. Such influences would certainly be most 
wholesome. 

Another, and the last valuable aid derived from a dissemination of 
Agricultural Science, which I shall mention, would be the establish- 
ment of correct standards of judgment to govern awards at your 
various cattle-shows. We now congregate together from all parts of 
the State, and invite our brethren from other States to exhibit their 



34 



productions by the side of our own. But by what rules are those 
productions thus brought into competition examined, and your prizes 
awarded 1 Why, from the very necessity of the case, no rules at all. 
Your examining committees, having no standard by which to judge 
the comparative scale of excellence in domestic animals, excepting, 
perhaps, a false estimate — or prejudice — or individual taste, differ 
widely in their opinion of w^hat is good, or what is bad ; of what is 
deserving, and what is undeserving ; and with all the flourish and 
eclat of a splendid and imposing show, perhaps the worst animals 
take your highest prizes. As a consequence, the truly good and 
scientific breeder leaves in disgust ; while the careless, indifferent 
one, walks off in triumph, glorying in the brute which ignorance, 
accident, or chance has thus given him credit for, and he is forever 
ruined for all further improvement, by having his ignorance or pre- 
judices endorsed by the Society, and holds, as a matter of course, the 
useful and accurate breeder in contempt. All this mischief. Agricul- 
tural Education and Science would rectify ; and that not alone. The 
adoption of rules of proceeding based upon accurately defined results, 
and ascertained through correct principles, would give to your Society 
that high stamp of authority in its decisions which, from its name and 
position, it should command; and without which, it must remain 
shorn of half its utility. 

I have thus, gentlemen of the Society, tediously to you, I fear, 
thrown together the imperfect and random thoughts which this sub- 
ject has suggested ; — a subject which lies near my heart, and has long 
been to many of you one of deep solicitude. If, in the arguments 
and illustrations advanced, I have spoken some unwelcome truths in 
a tone of apparent censure, and kept back the voice of commenda- 
tion, it is not that I am insensible that we may also contemplate the 
many subjects of gratulation and pride, which exist around us, and 
have been won by the labors of an intelligent, an active, and a won- 



35 



derfully energetic people. Inhabiting a State urivalkd in its fortu- 
nate position among the constellation with which we are numbered — 
possessing the great entrepot of our national commerce — ^and through 
our magnificent works of internal improvement, become the carriers 
for almost half an empire, disbursing, annually, millions of revenue 
derived from our public works, through our State Treasury — culti- 
vating a soil eminently kind in its agricultural productions — ^enjoying, 
almost without a parallel, the benefits of civil, religious, and literary 
nstitutions, steadily shedding their lights and their influences over a 
well ordered and rapidly improving people ; it is with a heart of ex- 
altation that I feel our course to be onward, to the consummation of 
a more perfect day. We shall attain the great and beneficent objects 
we demand ; and if we do not now succeed, I have an abiding confi- 
dence that our fervent wishes will yet be accomplished — a crowning 
work among the munificent institutions which grace, and dignify, 
and elevate your State, 

In contemplating the progress thus far, of your Society, and the 
results of your labors, you have just cause of satisfaction. You 
found the ore in its dross; you have ascertained the method of its 
separation, and defined the process of working it successfully into 
those useful and enduring forms wluch not only benefit the State, but 
redound to your own good name. You have only to persevere, and 
higher — more perfect attainments await your exertions. 

In now taking a final official leave of you — resigning, I trust, to 
more efficient hands, the honorable post to which, a year ago, your 
kind partiality assigned me, I can only regret that I have not possess- 
ed more ability to aid your exertions, and a more extended influence 
to draw into your support. My honest efforts, such as they were, 
have been devoted to your service. May Heaven's choicest favors 
rest upon your labors for the welfare of your fellow-men. 



36 

Permit me now, gentlemen, as my last presiding act, to introduce 
to you the President elect of your Society, the Hon. John A, King, 
of the county of Queens — ^in whose long association with you, and 
the hearty zeal he has invariably manifested in the labors of this 
Society, we have every confidence that his best efforts, and most dih- 
gent labors will be exerted in your cause. 



.V'l?* 



J^...J,,. ~ , .J«f 



1 t 


-IBRfiRY 


OF CONGRESS 












1 


^^ 




002 744 097 6' 


4 



